134 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



might not most suitably be established at the Demonstration 

 Forest itself, and away from the university centres, on the 

 model of the German Forest Academy. It would be unreason- 

 able, on financial grounds, to provide at a new centre the staff, 

 laboratories and appliances which are already to be found at 

 any of the universities for the teaching of the pure science subjects 

 which lead up to the study of forestry (Natural Philosophy, 

 Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Geology). The teaching at a 

 forest school, if it were decided to create one, would therefore 

 be confined to forestry proper and the specialised sciences allied 

 to it (Forest Botany, Forest Entomology, Forest Chemistry, 

 Forest Engineering, etc.), and even these could not be 

 transferred to a new centre without some duplication of staff 

 and equipment. The advantage which would be gained by 

 their transference to a forest school would be that the teaching 

 could be given by the staff actually responsible for the manage- 

 ment of the forest and with the woods at the door of the 

 class-room. The latter advantage will be sufficiently secured 

 by the arrangement proposed in section 15, combined with 

 weekly excursions, while the former is, in our judgment, out- 

 weighed not only by the complete disturbance that it would 

 entail to arrangements which are familiar and in some ways 

 working well, but by the fact that the responsibility for the 

 students' training, which ought to lie on one principal instructor 

 from beginning to end, would be divided at a critical moment. 

 The change would be opposed to the generally accepted views 

 of those concerned with the teaching of all kinds of applied 

 sciences, and to what appears to be the present tendency in 

 German forest education, as the result of long experience. 



While we have no hesitation in expressing our opinion that, 

 for the reasons stated above, the training of forest-officers ought 

 to take place at a university centre, and that it should be 

 confined to one only of the existing centres, it is clearly beyond 

 our province to suggest how the desired concentration should 

 be brought about. Jf we were starting afresh, we should, 

 without hesitation, advise the foundation of a single school of 

 forestry at the university centre nearest to the bulk of the 

 existing woodlands and largest afforestable areas; in which 

 case, as a glance at the map appended to our report will show, 

 the choice would almost necessarily fall upon Aberdeen. It 

 would folU^w tliat the location of the Demonstration Forest 



